


Radiance

by Padjal_Protector



Series: Tales from the Twelveswood [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22151275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Padjal_Protector/pseuds/Padjal_Protector
Summary: When things seem too simple, they're always bound to get complicated.
Series: Tales from the Twelveswood [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1504505
Kudos: 2





	Radiance

**Author's Note:**

> Once more I am playing loose with the canon timeline/events for my WoL. I realize I'm moving at a snail's pace but writing is hard and my 3 remaining brain cells can only do so much.

Van sighed, a slight exhale somewhere between weary and worried. Rubbing the back of his neck as he walked down the familiar paths of Gridania, his eyes lazily scanned around as he did so. The sun was shining, the air crisp and fresh. The citizens around him went about their business, bustling here and there on errands and leisure alike. The voices carried along with the sound of the breeze rustling leaves among the boughs above. 

He had grown to love Gridania more with each passing day. The clean slate the city provided, the community that slowly had begun to accept him made Vantelmont wake every morning with a tentative sense of belonging. 

He was off duty, today.

It had been insisted upon after the slightly haphazard run-in with the Ixal the day before. In fact, he was presently on his way to Nophica’s Altar. The Elder Seedseer had wanted to see about his injury, as she had stated before they parted yesterday. Sure, the woman had mended his ghastly wound, but in turn had apparently noticed something amiss and wanted to check on it. 

Van was left with a sense of both nervousness and worry. When he looked at his arm where the wound had been, the vision was clear in his mind of the state it had been in. A violent wound, bleeding, limb nearly torn asunder in contrast to it’s present state of mended and barely scarred. He couldn’t rightly imagine what might be wrong, but he was no chirurgeon nor conjurer. Sheepishly, he had to wonder if it was his less than valiant reaction to killing the Ixal or perhaps the initial pain he’d experienced at Kan-E’s conjury that was cause for concern. 

No sense in over thinking, however. Especially not when he’d already arrived.  
Before he could clumsily try to ask the Silent Conjurer for Kan-E, the woman herself flanked by E-Sumi Yan emerged from Stillglade Fane. He caught sight of them as they seemed to finish their conversation. 

Immediately, Van bowed respectfully to both Padjal. 

“Elder Seedseer, Guildmaster.” He stood upright again. 

A small smile found its way to Kan-E’s face while E-Sumi simply nodded. 

“Perhaps there is indeed something.” E-Sumi spoke curiously, but did not expand upon his words, save to offer another nod toward the Elder Seedseer. “Clarity will come.”

“Some things cannot be rushed, ‘‘tis true.” She said with that same smile, before inclining her head to the other Padjal. “Be well.”

A short bow, and E-Sumi Yan turned to make his way back to the cool and quiet of Stillglade Fane. 

Van was certainly confused but didn’t feel it his place to ask. Particularly when whatever they’d been talking about had likely been things he wouldn’t have understood anyhow. He wasn’t Padjali, after all. When Kan-E turned to him again with that gentle look in her eyes, it was easy to forget any confusion and just gaze at her. She was a real beauty, graceful and with a glow all her own. 

He snapped his thoughts from that idle distraction.

Van cleared his throat. “I hope I wasn’t interrupting.” 

A small wave of her hand, the other holding the Seedseer’s signature staff, Claustrum. 

“Not at all.” She assured him, before indicating he follow her. “Had you not arrived, I would have sent for you.” 

A slight pause in her words as she led him down the pathway toward the Lotus Stand. “Rather, perhaps I would have sought you out myself, even. It’s good for me to venture with more frequency into the city, in truth.” 

Van’s smile was nervous, but he couldn’t help it. He almost wanted to laugh, amused at the notion that she’d go find him herself. Frankly if she was to seek him out, deep down he’d rather it not be about an injury but just as quickly as the thought filtered into his mind he swatted it away. That wasn’t...appropriate to think.

A slight laugh escaped him. “I wouldn’t waste your time in such a manner, honest.” 

He repressed the urge to rub the back of his neck again. The fewer obvious tics of embarrassment he could show plainly, the better. 

Once they’d passed the short bend in the path, she continued leading him past the area most familiar to him. He’d been there at least twice now, but on more official business. Even so, he was sure he’d been there more often in his short amount of time living in Gridania than most citizens may have. When they finally stopped, without much flourish or ceremony, Kan-E set Claustrum aside as she sat down at the base of one of the large trees that provided shade to the area. He hesitated only a second, before, as cautiously as he could, he took her lead and sat down in turn alongside her. He didn’t get a chance to begin agonizing about whether or not he was sitting too closely to her before she extended a hand to him. 

At this, he did sort of just sit stupidly, until remembering himself. He cleared his throat, needlessly since he wasn’t poised to say anything, and extended his arm, rolling his sleeve back and up, to allow her to see where his injury had been. The skin was still raw, the beginnings of a scar where evident but compared to how the wound had looked it was a drastic difference. Not to mention, a clear show of the strength of the woman’s conjury. 

Gently, she took his forearm and traced fingers softly over the mended flesh. Her attention was fixed on this, but his was, at least for a moment, fixed on watching her instead. She furrowed a little, in concentration, and Van found himself wishing he knew what was going through her head. 

“Does it trouble you at all?” She asked, looking to him and consequently taking him off guard.

He blinked, suddenly looking her in the eyes. Those beautiful, green eyes. 

Van shook his head abruptly. 

“No, no. It doesn’t.” He started, dropping his attention to her hand gently pressed against the now-old wound. He could see the slightest glow from her fingers. “I...well.” 

He let out a nervous chuckle. 

“I confess I’ve never quite...been in a situation where healing by conjury was something I had experienced before.” He looked up, sheepishly. “So I can only imagine perhaps that was why I did not...react correctly…?”

He wasn’t sure what he was even saying, now. How did one ‘react correctly’ to healing? Oh, by the Fury he was quite an idiot wasn’t he? Maybe he should’ve just stayed silent unless she asked him a question, then there’d be less chance for him to be stupid out loud.

Kan-E, with that same patience and serene expression, at least didn’t look frustrated with him. That was something, right?

“I gathered a hint of that yesterday, in truth. It was nothing to simply adjust my own conjury to avoid causing distress or more of a shock to your already stressed system at the time.” She answered, calmly. “Still, there was something else, I thought.”

Gently, she laughed, releasing his arm, hands folded in her lap as they sat there. 

“All are capable of misinterpreting what they see or making errors, of course. Myself included.” 

Van distractedly pulled his sleeve back down, watching her and again, reminded of how much he liked hearing her laugh. It made him smile, made him want to hear it again. 

They both fell silent a moment, but as she made no indication of dismissing him just yet, Van lingered. He liked this, actually. Since the first time he’d been able to spend time with her, even silence felt comfortable between them. Or, it did to him at least. Certainly it was just this silly infatuation he had with the woman who was several levels out of his league, but for the moment he was going to just enjoy it.

Sitting there, under the canopy of the trees and listening to little else but the rustling leaves above and the gentle babbling of the rivers near them. He very much liked this, he didn’t even feel as hopelessly nervous as much as a strange sense of, cliche as it might be, butterflies. 

For a second, he thought she was conjuring again, the faintest luminance caught his attention before he realized it wasn’t coming from her. 

“This radiance…” Kan-E spoke up as Van too had little choice but to take notice of the glow coming from the front of his own shirt.

Clumsily, he dug into his clothing and retrieved a crystal, laughing nervously. 

“Oh! Oh ah...this, I uh. I found it.” He was sure he sounded stupid, but the sudden glowing under his shirt had taken him off guard. The crystal had dimmed after he found it and hadn’t glowed again until now.

“Could it be...a Crystal of light?” 

Van looked to her, blinking. 

Kan-E leaned in slightly to speak. “Tell me true-has the Mothercrystal revealed Herself to you? Did you bask in Her Light?”

Confusion painted plain on his face, he looked to the crystal in his hand, then back to Kan-E with a furrowed brow. It was like he didn’t comprehend her words, though he most certainly did. 

She pressed on. 

“Have you perchance experienced sensations akin to aether sickness of late?”

Lips pressed to a tense, firm, line Van considered her words. He hadn’t known what to make of it, honestly. He had ignored it as best he could to simply go about his tasks of daily life and his responsibilities to the Twin Adders. After all, growing up in the Brume Van had always been accustomed to ignoring anything that could’ve been considered an ailment or sickness unless it began to affect his daily life. Even then, it wasn’t a guarantee he’d attend to it either.

“I...maybe.” 

It was the best he could do as far as answer her. His free hand moved to push dark strands of his hair back from his face as he looked to her again.

Her expression was somewhere between bemused and curious. 

“That Hydaelyn would speak directly to you…”

It was confusing, in truth. 

He wasn’t sure what to make of this, of how she spoke to him now with such reverence, an almost ‘knowing’ quality to her words. It made his stomach feel in knots, the fact that this woman whom by all accounts shouldn’t look upon him with any sense of being impressed at all, was doing so now. Those emerald eyes upon him, he felt pinned by her gaze. 

Kan-e left him room to answer, to speak on what she’d just told him. 

Van’s words had left him somewhere about the moment she’d called notice to the light from the crystal that’d been tucked into his clothing. Nothing but something he’d found after a run-in with some inexplicably hostile treants in the shroud while on patrol when freshly enlisted with the Adders. He hadn’t even been sure why he picked it up, but moments prior he’d been struck with the strangest vision flashing before his eyes. A perspective not his, memories not his own, in that very same wooded area where he’d stood. 

Something else, someone else. 

He had considered it his imagination, as he had no other way to explain it. Van kept the crystal on his person, though, for reasons he knew not how to explain.

“Beholding you, illuminated by the glow of the Crystal...I cannot help but be reminded of them.”

‘Them’ referring to the Warriors of Light. 

The first time he’d spoken to Kan-E, providing an escort while her personal guards were otherwise occupied, she had told him about her experiences in Carteneu. Sure, things most Gridanian’s knew, but as a relatively new arrival it had been amazing to hear from someone who had lived it. 

Hesitantly, he remained speechless, dropping his gaze. There had to be some kind of mistake. He didn’t even know why he’d picked it up. 

Perhaps it was meant for someone else, someone better, someone...more than what he was. The tension he began to feel up his spine seemed tenfold as the silence between them grew. Van didn’t know what to say, nor how to word his belief this was some kind of mistake. He didn’t want to tell the Elder Seedseer she was wrong, not when she sounded so sure, but what other answer could there have been?

“Vantelmont.” 

Her voice, gentle as it was, cut through his thoughts and dragged his attention back to her. Van couldn’t help that, he couldn’t hear his name from her lips without reacting, hopeless as he was.

“The Crystal has chosen you for a purpose.”

Van felt himself go pale, the sudden feel of a weight being precariously placed on his shoulders at her words. She spoke gently, but so confidently, like it was fact. Like she knew.

He shook his head, finally his voice finding him, albeit croaked. 

“I don’t-” He hesitated. “This is a mistake, I’m-” His gaze flitted away from hers, nervously and a little ashamed to speak what he felt was his truth. “I’m nobody.”

A nobody. Just some Brume-rat that managed to luck out and escape his poverty but he’d never erase the simple fact that he was nothing. 

Not even a breath later, he felt her hands grasping one of his. He found himself staring down at their hands, frozen. Hers were small and pale compared to his own darker and larger one, but she held it tightly. He swore his heart stopped at the contact, warmth flooding his face. 

“The Crystal has chosen _you_ for a purpose.” She repeated herself, softly, but with a firmness all the same. 

Van couldn’t look at her, keeping his attention glued to the way she held his hand. It was like she was, in her own way, anchoring him while his anxiety and disbelief threatened to pull him away. 

“Trust to it’s guiding light and all shall be revealed to you in good time.” Her tone was soft, patient. “Though I cannot say for certain what the future will bring, it is my belief that you may yet play a telling role in the tale of this great realm.” 

Why did it sound like she knew something he didn’t? Was she just that confident in him, or had she had a vision of some kind? He didn’t dare ask, part of him didn’t quite want to know because it’d be one more thing he would have to try and process. 

Without thinking, he nodded, in lieu of responding verbally just yet. 

Trust in it, and if not that, then in the conviction this radiant woman seemed to have in him. Again, his stomach felt in knots. 

He wanted to say it was a mistake, again. He wanted to say it couldn’t mean anything for him, because he was just ordinary. Something kept him from doing so, however. Be it the way she continued to hold his hand or some deep down, hidden desire to be more than ordinary, he kept his doubts from escaping his lips. 

Exhaling gently, he finally spoke up. 

“I will certainly do my best.” Came his soft reply. 

Van realized quickly, he meant it. He would do his best, do his damndest to prove her words true. Especially if it meant slowly climbing towards a place where he may someday feel worth the apparently conviction with which she spoke of her certainty in what the crystal’s glow had meant. 

He pocketed the crystal again, mind a flurry of thoughts and feelings. As if spurred by the selfsame confidence of her words to him, he shifted his hand to grasp one of hers.

“Thank you, my lady.” 

He brought her hand up to his lips and gently pressed his lips to her fingers. A rather bold gesture for him, actually. He’d only seen this done in passing by nobles, not an action meant for someone like him, but in that moment he couldn’t help it. He had acted before his brain and common sense had reacted quickly enough to stop him. 

The contact was brief, though time seemed to slow. When he lowered their hands and looked to her again, he found himself once more momentarily lost in the green of her eyes. She was smiling, the kind of smile that did in fact reach her eyes and just lend to the radiance of her expression.

“It would be wise to wait until my actions are something to warrant gratitude.” She said with a hint of amusement in her tone.

He blinked, tipping his head slightly to the side. 

“My apologies, I had considered you keeping my wound from rendering me invalid was quite the feat worth thanks, was it not?”

Wait. 

Where had that come from? 

Where had this sense to reply to her in such a familiar fashion come? Again, he spoke before being able to stop himself, but in this case his words prompted a laugh from her.

And she still hadn’t pulled her hand from the grasp of his.

“Oh? Perhaps that is true.” Kan-E responded, nodding thoughtfully. “Though I will accept your thanks, rest assured my aid does not come with conditions.” 

Maybe it was his imagination, but he could’ve sworn she squeezed his hand. 

“You’re on a path. The details of it I know not, but if I can provide any guidance, know that I will gladly do so.” 

The woman really had a way of putting his mind at ease, be it by her words or by her very presence near him. Belatedly it felt like, her hand finally slipped from his grasp, she shifted where she sat to lean a little more against the tree trunk behind them. Her attention flitted from watching him, off and away at the woods. As her eyes closed, he could only wonder what it was she could hear from the elementals, but once more, dared not ask.

In truth he was still processing much of what she’d said, and also processing his own boldness. He certainly was infatuated with her, but far be it for him not to feel at least a little flustered inwardly that she’d responded in a way that made him think his attraction wasn’t entirely one sided. Of course, if he would muster the courage to act on his feelings again was debatable. Leaning back against the tree’s trunk in turn, he pressed his head back on it as well, looking upward. 

She’d already examined his injury, and dropped some rather heavy information on him, but he didn’t want to leave just yet. He was comfortable, he liked being near her.

In fact, until he was dismissed, Van decided he would linger as long as he could.


End file.
